Leaves Through Cola-Colored Glasses

Here in New England, sunrise has delayed at least

30 minutes later, and there is a promising chill to the air.

Much less humidity, also. We are officially into the calendar

period that the locals refer to as "Foliage Season" - 

meaning be ready for the tourists.

The beautiful trees and bushes stop their chlorophyll

production, and instead let their beautiful colors show through.

The changeover is a gentle, subtle creep, of course, 

and as it begins, I have been having an interesting experience 

that I will make the theme for the musings of this post.

The most oft-repeated activity that we have is our car trip

from apartment in Goffstown to the Mission Office in

the Manchester chapel building across town on Wellington Road.

Vince drives, so I spend the 23 minutes looking out my car window.

In anxious anticipation of the autumn show ahead,

and with my formerly-unnecessary sunglasses in place,

I was tickled to rather suddenly realize that I could see

the changing red tints in some of the passing trees and bushes.

"Look at that!" I may have exclaimed to my companion.

But Vince, somewhat color blind, couldn't share my joy.

I pulled away my sun glasses, and realized that without

them, I couldn't really see the colors either.

I repeated the on-off, on-off of sun glasses,

and began to realize that the brown lens filter was

enhancing the reds while suppressing the greens.

That initiated thoughts about other "filters" in my perceptions.

It led on to consideration of "smaller" blessings that may go

unrecognized without a mind processing to notice them.

I will mention a couple in our recent experiences.

This, above, is friendly Frank, our regular mail man,

arriving late afternoon on September 3. The story doesn't

begin with him, but he was an unknowing player in our small drama.

(I perceived that he thought I was crazy when I asked to click

a couple of pictures of him to go with this story.)

Below, Frank is chatting with us briefly while dropping off

and picking up the outgoing mail.

Story One begins: Sister Beck (President's wife) is only

in the office occasionally, with so many other outside

and traveling duties. On that day, she had spent a good

portion of the day there with casual time between her other

tasks. One list check-box was to brain storm

about a gift they could present the homeward-bound

missionaries, something low budget but memorable.

Temple card holders was one idea she had, but

searching online together, the price of those available

seemed too high, and which would be the best 'image'

to choose? We speculated: could we procure a better price

with the help of someone connected to the supplying business,

and wouldn't it be cool if we could somehow customize them?

I made a quick call to my sister Elana living in Midvale 

(Salt Lake valley), Utah to cross-check if we knew anyone

through whom we could inquire, and left her a voice message.

We continued our thought-path with minor detours as

we checked other ideas, when Frank the Mailman entered,

made his delivery/pickup almost without our noticing, and

continued on his way. Sister Matkin sorted mail in

her usual efficient fashion, and then with a smile

and twinkly eyes, she handed a "junk mail" envelope

across the counter to Sister Beck. It was the flyer shown

above, inviting Mission Presidents to consider ordering

custom made temple card covers, in quantities that

offered budget pricing. It was a rather small event,

but we all shared that 'goose bumps' feeling as we

recognized that this was an answer to a prayer

that we hadn't even formally expressed!

To finish this incident I include the image above,

showing the covers we needed to order ahead of
the BIG batch, by phone that day

for departing missionaries leaving soon.

(Not enough time to order bulk covers, of course.)

This speedy delivery comes through

the actions of sister Elana Barrow, who agreed

to be my courier to pick these up from her local 

Deseret Book store, prepare them for mailing, 

and dispatch them so fast! (Arrived in less than 72 hours.)

Story Two: it begins with Sister Semadeni and
Sister Randall serving and teaching in Littleton, MA.
(I've used this image in a post previously, but there is
more to the story.) Elder Warner had plans to get a new
car to them within a few days, when early on a Sunday,
he received a text that made it more urgent.

I heard the ping of Vince's phone, and since he

was busy getting ready for the day, I looked to see.

It was the Littleton Sisters reporting that their car

had broken down. I responded quickly, and told

Vince that someone needed his help urgently.

While he finished his shower (as he reported afterward), 

he considered and wondered. And into his mind came

the idea of the Littleton Sisters needing help.

When he finally looked at his phone, his premonition

was confirmed, and he had already had time

to make a mental plan to get them what they needed.

He believes he was inspired to know who it was

that needed help, and to be prepared quickly.

Story Three is NOT so much about inspiration or direct blessings

as it is about having a way appear to correct an error.

At a recent Zone conference where I was leading

the lunch preparations for 70 people, we picked up

sandwiches and supplies at the local Maine Walmart.

I collected the required 6 tubs of Cool Whip,

ingredients for the 'Hawaiian Fruit Fluff" salad,

and we hurried back to the chapel kitchen to prepare.

With just minutes to spare in our well-laid plan,

I began to dump together the salad.

I unwrapped and opened the first of the Cool Whip

and squeaked with alarm when I discovered that

what we had grabbed was the Oreo-mixin variety.

(I didn't even know there could be wrong choices!)

Vince made a quick trip to a closer grocery store,
and we barely completed the mixing and stirring process
ahead of the beginning of lunch.
But NOW what would I do with ALL the chocolate Cool Whip?
Luckily with a little research, review of lid tag recipe suggestions,
and some imagination, I contrived a brownie with
Cool Whip/cream cheese layer, drizzled with raspberry
sauce and chocolate syrup, with Cool Whip dallop
and fresh raspberries garnish for the next MLC Conf.
(Thanks, Mom, for teaching me kitchen creativity!)

How has YOUR lamp been filled by perceiving
the many blessings that happen all around?